Raising Awareness - and Funds - for Rare Diseases at the Boston Marathon

This year, on April 16th, a team of 11 dedicated Genzyme employees will run in the 116th Boston Marathon to raise money for the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and to raise awareness of rare diseases. In addition to raising funds for NORD’s important programs, each Genzyme runner will be partnered with a patient, each serving as the source of inspiration for the other.

Genzyme has organized and fielded a team of runners (a.k.a. fundraisers!) for the past five years, raising more than $100,000 dollars for NORD in the process. In addition to their training schedule, runners are also busy planning the fundraising events that will take place over the next few months, before their big day -- raffles, silent online auctions, sweatshirt and water bottle sales, and the old fashioned bake sale. A portion of the funds raised by the runners will also be matched by Genzyme. To learn more, go to the website: http://runningforrarediseases.org/.

The first Boston Marathon was run in 1897, just 15 years after Gaucher’s disease was first described by French physician Phillipe Gaucher. Just as marathon times have gotten faster and faster since those early days, therapies for rare diseases continue to be discovered and enhanced. However, there is still a great need as a vast majority of the 7,000 rare diseases that exist today still have no treatment. For more information about NORD: https://rarediseases.org/.